


unexpectedly

by LiveLaughLovex



Series: a collection of moments [2]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Post-Episode: s02e07 Ka Iwi Kapu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 11:37:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18072725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex
Summary: The unexpected. It's usually a cop's worst enemy. Why, then, is Kono so open to the possibilities it supplies her with?





	unexpectedly

**Author's Note:**

> The best relationships usually begin unexpectedly. - Unknown

Kono really hated paperwork. She always had. If she’d known, back when she’d first started out at the Academy, that there would be so much red tape involved in this line of work, then she might’ve rethought a few things. Oh, well. There was no going back at this point, and it seemed a pretty fair tradeoff, getting to throw monsters behind bars in exchange for a hand cramp or two.

Everyone else had left for the day after returning from their dead suspect’s residence – a residence that had been blown into a million pieces by its owner’s own hand. Steve was the only one who’d remained behind. Kono wasn’t surprised, not in the slightest. After working alongside the man for the past thirteen months, she was seriously beginning to doubt that he slept at all.

She was jotting her signature on a few last documents – and thanking God for ending her torture as she did so – when a knock on her office door pulled her attention away from the words printed on the page. A few seconds later, the door opened, and Steve leaned against the doorframe, his arms folded over his chest as he stared at her, fondness displayed openly in his gaze.

“Hey, boss,” Kono greeted distractedly, stacking the papers neatly in front of her and tucking them away in their correct folder. After she’d filed them away, she glanced up with a friendly smile of her own. “How’s it going?”

“Everything’s good,” Steve assured her. “What are you doing here so late? I thought you had dinner with your parents tonight. Shouldn’t you have left hours ago?”

“I _did_ have dinner with my parents tonight, but one of the boys got called out to a case at the last minute, so we had to reschedule,” Kono informed him. “My mother refuses to count it as a family meal unless all of us are there when the food’s put on the table.” She shook her head fondly. “And I’m here so late because I figured the pile of paperwork on my desk probably wasn’t going to do itself. Sure enough, I was right. What’s your excuse?”

“Man blew himself up right in front of us. Governor wanted a debrief,” Steve explained. “He apparently didn’t get everything he wanted from Weston, so…” The lieutenant commander shrugged, then quickly changed the subject. “You managed to grab anything for dinner yet?”

Kono blinked at the sudden change of discussion topic, then shook her head. “No, not yet. Please don’t lecture me about that,” she pleaded. “I hear enough of that from my mother every single time she calls. I’m pretty sure she has a spy within the office.” She glanced pointedly over at the closed door of her cousin’s dark office.

“I’m not going to lecture you,” Steve assured her, amused. “I was just wondering if you’d like to have breakfast with me.”

“Breakfast?” Kono repeated, confused.

“Yeah, breakfast. Pancakes, more specifically, from Wailana Coffee House. You interested?”

Kono shook her head with a wry smile. “I’m pretty sure they revoke your state citizenship if you dislike the food from that place.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re right,” Steve agreed. “So? What do you say?”

“To pancakes?” Kono smirked. “If I ever say no to that offer, McGarrett, it’s because I’ve been replaced with a pod person, I promise you.”

“Understood. I’ll drive.”

“I drove myself in,” Kono pointed out, standing from behind her desk and grabbing her purse from the corner of her desk. “I can drive myself home.”

“It’s late,” Steve countered. “And dark. I don’t want your cousin to put me in the hospital if something happens to you on my watch. I’ll drive.”

Kono sighed exasperatedly. “Fine. But just so you know, I’m agreeing under duress. It truly is cruel to make me imagine someone messing up your face. Unfair bargaining chip you’ve got there, McGarrett.”

“Noted,” Steve assured her wryly, his hand falling to the small of her back as he guided her down the hallway and onto the elevator.

 

-o-o-o-o-

 

“Your mother cannot be that bad,” Steve protested, shaking his head as Kono told yet another story of the childhood she’d experienced under her parents’ roof. “Did you ever think that maybe all those boys she scared into never talking to you again might’ve had something to hide?”

“Yeah, I’m sure that four-year-old Carter Mulroney had all kinds of nefarious plans when he offered to push me on the swings that day at recess,” Kono agreed sarcastically. “And that Al Carson shared every single one of them when he walked me home from the bus stop that one time in kindergarten.”

Steve outright laughed at that. “Okay, maybe your mother _is_ that bad,” he conceded. “How did you manage to date anyone at all, living under her roof?”

Kono shrugged. “I pretty much stopped living under her roof when I was fifteen. Before that, I just snuck out the window. My dad never did get around to fixing it, either,” she mused. “I don’t think he ever realized what was going on. Though, even if he’d figured it out, he never was the control freak in that house, even when it came to me. That title has always belonged to my mother. It still does.”

“You’re all adults now, aren’t you? How can she still be controlling you?” Steve questioned curiously. “You can just tell her _no_ now, can’t you?”

“In theory, yes. In actuality? No.” Kono shook her head and widened her eyes. “My mother might not be able to ground us anymore, but she can lay a guilt trip like you wouldn’t believe on us if we don’t go along with what she wants. She’s got this look in her arsenal, boss, that I am pretty sure is more effective than any sniper rifle at hitting a person where it hurts.”

“Well.” Steve cleared his throat. “I can’t wait to meet her, then.”

Kono smiled apologetically. “Yeah, I guess I don’t paint her in the best light,” she admitted. “She’s an angel to everyone who _didn’t_ start out in her womb, though. You’ll be fine.”

“Well, that creates an interesting mental picture.” Steve blinked. “I’m guessing you take after your father, then.”

“He’s the cop,” Kono pointed out. “We all took after him. It was one of the very few times we didn’t let my mother have her way. If she’d gotten what she wanted, we’d all be Harvard-educated doctors and lawyers by now.”

“I can’t imagine that being your scene,” Steve admitted, cutting into his pancakes after the waitress placed the plate in front of him.

“Oh, it never was,” Kono confirmed. “I did okay at school, I guess, but I never really enjoyed it. I always wanted to be like my dad, out there making a difference in the world. That is why I was never really sold on the college thing, you know? Spending four years lost in books did not have much appeal to me, even when I was a kid. I always knew I wanted to do something different, something more.” She smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. You didn’t ask for my entire life story.”

“I don’t mind,” Steve assured her. “I like hearing about it. It’s not like you’re exactly an open book, Kalakaua.”

“I could say the same about you,” Kono pointed out. “So. I showed you mine. What’s yours? Why Annapolis? Why the Navy?”

Steve shrugged. “Family tradition?” he offered after a moment. “I don’t know. I wanted to be a cop when I was a kid,” he confided. “My father was always against it, though, told me it’d worry my mother half to death. After she was killed, I felt like it’d be disrespectful. I let my heart rule over my head, that time. Probably one of the last times I did for a while.”

“I’m sure she would’ve worried,” Kono murmured. “But she would’ve been proud. You have to know that, McGarrett. Your dad, too. You’re too good of a person for them not to be.”

Steve scoffed humorlessly. “Maybe. It’s just ironic, you know? My father never wanted me to become a cop, said it’d scare Mom half to death, and yet it was his murder because of his investigation into hers that led to Five-0’s existence.”

“That is – yeah, it’s a bit ironic,” Kono admitted. “Morbidly so. Maybe don’t bring it up to anyone who doesn’t know you as well as I do, yeah? They might worry.”

Steve laughed hollowly. “Okay, I won’t,” he promised.

Kono sighed heavily. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure. Shoot.”

“Why did you ask me to breakfast?” She shook her head before he could so much as lose the look of confusion that came onto his face at the question. “Not that I’m not glad you did. I’m just – I’m a little confused. We haven’t really talked about – well, about _anything_. Not since you came over a few weeks back. And now, we’re here, and I have no idea where _here_ is. I hate feeling like I’m not in the know when it comes to my own life, McGarrett, and that is exactly how I feel at this moment, so, no matter how awkward I’ve just made things, could you please just _talk_ to me?”

Steve blinked, his eyes wider than she’d ever seen them, and, okay, maybe blurting out something so emotional in the presence of a Navy SEAL wasn’t the smartest decision she’d ever made, but she was also pretty sure she was on a date with her boss at one o’clock in the damn morning, so it wasn’t exactly like those were really her forte anymore anyway, was it?

“Uh.” Steve still remained unresponsive. Kono was relatively certain she’d accidently made him short-circuit. God, this would _not_ be fun to explain to Danny in the morning. “I swear I didn’t mean to confuse you, Kono,” Steve promised seriously. “Really.”

“I know,” Kono sighed, shaking her head. “Of course, I know that, Steve. I never thought otherwise. Like I said earlier, you’re too good a person for that.” She tried – and failed – to smile. “Is this a date? If it’s not, we can pretend this conversation never happened, I promise. It’ll be water under the bridge, whatever.”

“I don’t want it to be water under the bridge,” Steve denied seriously. He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. I haven’t exactly dated a lot these past few years,” he admitted sheepishly. “But that’s what I want to do with you. If you want to, that is. It’s up to you. It’s always going to be up to you.”

“That’s a lot of power you’re putting in my hands,” she pointed out. “You sure you don’t want any of it for yourself?”

Steve shook his head. “I’ve already made my decision. I’m standing by it,” he said seriously. “Like I said, it’s up to you, now. I’m following your lead.”

“I want it to be a date,” she said definitively, not even flinching when his eyes flew to hers. “You do know we’re going to have to lie about how we got together, though, don’t you?”

“Why?” Steve questioned, amused.

“Because if we tell Danny we decided this at two o’clock in the morning, in the corner booth of a coffee house, he will never let us live it down.”

“You’re probably right.” Steve shrugged. “Let him think what he wants, though, yeah? I mean, the guy doesn’t like coconut syrup. He’s clearly not right in the head.”

She was laughing openly when he leaned across the table to steal the quickest of kisses from her lips. Needless to say, she called for the check immediately after he pulled away.

**Author's Note:**

> I told you I'd come back to this series eventually. Sure, I didn't plan to do it at midnight on a Monday, but here we are. I must apologize for any glaring errors that might exist regarding the episode, timeline, etc. The show was recently taken off of Netflix, and I have yet to buy the boxed sets, so I had to supply those aspects entirely from my memory. I hope you enjoyed, anyway.


End file.
